Health Care

By Gabriela Rosa

Do you feel you are performing at your best? Do you spring out of bed in the morning, excited and ready for the opportunities your day presents?

Imagine for a moment you are the proud owner of a champion, thorough bred horse worth in excess of one million dollars.

As the owner of this prized purebred, would you let him stay up half the night, drink coffee and booze, smoke cigarettes and eat junk food? What about your $10 dog? Your $5 cat?

You see, most people treat their own bodies with less care than they would treat a $5 cat. If you did own a horse worth one million dollars, you would hire a nutritionist to make sure his diet was exactly right, you would also ensure he was getting his regular massages and spine alignment treatments; the best supplementation; you would have the best trainer in the country; an air-conditioned barn in the summer time, a steam-heated one in the winter time a million dollar investment. And here you have this BILLION dollar body.

When Was Your Last 100,000km Service?
The problem is that we expect our body will just do what it is supposed to do no matter what kind of treatment it receives. We often take better care of our car ensuring it gets regular service, appropriate maintenance and oil changes in the necessary intervals, but when it comes to our own bodies, the service is usually below par.

Our bodies have amazing coping, self-correcting mechanisms. It is able to handle, quite literally, long-term abuse, without much complaint for long periods. It waits patiently to be treated well with only slow and gradual decline in health and vitality, until the day it decides: That's it, I've had enough!--only then we start paying attention.

The First Sign, Help Is Needed!
The first aspect of our health that starts to signal a need for 'help' relates to our general wellbeing and vitality: Our energy levels. We often misinterpret the body's needs or simply ignore them--what the body really is asking for when it lacks energy is for us to take care: sleep more, eat well, exercise, re-hydrate. But instead of that we end up giving it lots of coffee, energy drinks, sugar and telling ourselves to 'snap out of it' as we go on abusing it. That is not a smart long-term strategy. In fact, it only leads to one thing: Disease.

How Do I Make It All Better?
The solution is to STOP and go back to basics. However, before you change anything it is vital to assess where you are at and where you would like to be. In my practice we have some fancy machines to do that, we also take our patients through very comprehensive and detailed assessments to ensure we are both clear about the starting point (a baseline is paramount), however one of the tools we use which is available to you right now is a simple question:--What are you energy levels on a scale of 0-10 10=excellent)? Once you have the answer to this question you can start implementing the following suggestions to substantially increase your energy levels. In fact, a 300% energy increase is very realistic. When a person is operating at 2/10 and for the time, that is their 100%, it doesn't take long, when applying the tips below to increase levels to a generous and vibrant 8/10. Keep going and you will ACE it!

Practical Steps For Energy Maximization
Once you know where you are at, you can measure your progress as you go along. Here are 7 tips that will transform your energy levels and vitality within one week of diligent application. The catch is that you need to keep your practice up for at least 28 days to see the full benefit of your new investment in yourself.

1. Clean Up Your Diet
Let go of all junk. Base your meals on fresh, organic, seasonal produce (fruits and vegetables) and good quality protein (e.g. eggs, quark, chicken, beef, lamb, kangaroo, venison etc). The less unprocessed your foods the better. Avoid canned and pre-prepared meals.

2. Have Protein For Breakfast
If you could only do ONE thing on this list--this would have to be it. Eating good quality protein for breakfast is one of the only things that will ensure you do not get any energy slumps in the afternoon. So try poached or boiled eggs; fruit smoothie with quark; fruit with cottage cheese or quark; toast with sardines or (flaked) grilled salmon.

3. Eat Every 3 Hours
This will ensure your energy is leveled during the day. Ensuring your moods, focus, concentration are all optimum. This is easier than you think. Just divide up what you would normally eat in one sitting for a meal into two. Your digestive system will have an easier job and your energy levels will skyrocket.

4. What To Drink And What Not To Drink?
When cells become dehydrated, they don't perform the metabolic processed necessary to ensure proper detoxification and optimum energy. So ensuring you have a large 2L bottle with you or a jug on your desk--knowing that by the end of the day the whole thing needs to be finished will be your best way forward. Also ensure your have a good quality water filter for this purpose; toxins found in unfiltered or poorly filtered water will damage your health. You want to make sure your filter is as fine as 1 micron or more.

In addition, be sure to avoid (or at least drastically cut down on the consumption of) coffee and alcohol, as well as sugary and energy drinks including undiluted fruit juices. These substances dramatically disturb your blood sugar levels and energy balance. Cofee and alcohol are also very dehydrating, also depleting the body of essential nutrients necessary to ensure optimum energy.

5. Get Enough And Quality Sleep
If your body is not resting sufficiently at night--no matter what you do during the day, your energy levels will not improve. Start by planning your life around getting enough sleep, not the other way around. Budget for 7-9 hours of sleep time each night. If you are having problems, sleeping you will see that by implementing all the previous suggestions this should improve. Alternatively, seek help; there are many effective natural tools you can implement for a better night's sleep.

6. Exercise & Nutritional support
Being active is the best way to balance your blood sugar levels. Also when you exercise your body releases endorphins which are feel good chemicals that also boost your energy levels. There are so many benefits to exercise, if you are not doing it,you are missing out! Aim to do something for at least 40 minutes, no less 4 days per week. Build up to this slowly if necessary--but just get out there!

7. Spinal Alignment & Nutritional Support
It is all very well to want to build a house, but if you are missing key building materials, it is not going to happen--no matter how much you want it. This is the role of nutrients in the body. Unfortunately when the body becomes depleted, diet alone is not sufficient to correct the problem. Each individual has different requirement and an assessment of your needs, as well as what other supplements or medicines you are currently taking is really important before embarking on any new supplementation. Resolving depleted or deficient states in your body can make a world of difference to your energy levels!

Another key aspect of energy is spinal your spine health and alignment--this also hinges on appropriate nutritional markers, however ensuring proper blood flow to tissues, and key body parts such as the brain is essential for energy and for this you just cannot go passed a good chiropractor or osteopath.

Keep these up and your billion dollar asset will reward you with bountiful energy, remarkable vitality and robust wellbeing. What more could you want?